Thursday, January 12, 2017

Winter White

My apologies if you're getting tired of seeing snow and ice photos...I can tell you I am getting tired of seeing snow and ice. Late Tuesday evening we were supposed to start seeing snowflakes, which would result in an eventual 4" or so. Maybe less. It did start snowing, around 6:00, but that 4" was piled up before I even went to bed, and it snowed all night long and into Wednesday morning. Our eventual total snow = a foot. Twelve inches of this...

That round blob in the front and center is my biggest Agave ovatifolia, wrapped in frost cloth. "Hello in there! How are you doing???"

And to think, the Tetrapanax had real potential to bloom last fall...

The Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold' buds have had a serious snow and ice workout this winter. They'll be extra worshiped when they bloom in a few weeks (fingers crossed — hey whadda ya know, I still have hope...).

The bamboo by the garage door is always a flopper, but this is taking it to a new level. I think there's gonna be a big cut back in its future.

Some of you are going to be able to see the beauty in all this. I just can't. There is too much potential destruction, it just brings me no joy. Oh sure...there are a couple of shots I worked in because I thought they were kinda pretty...but all-in-all my heart is heavy. But what can ya do?...

The fern dish planters live there, usually. They're currently buried under leaves for protection.

That palm frond!

It looks like a hand raised above the water as it's drowning. Save me, please, somebody please...save me...

The largest palm just looks sad.

Did I mention a foot of snow fell?

That's the Acacia that tipped over in our first ice storm. It's laying on the stock tank pond and the Agave ovatifolia PVC igloo.

The igloo is holding up just fine under all that snow.

The Maytenus boaria, Cryptomeria japonica 'Rasen' and Eriobotrya japonica are all sleepy. Sadly I can't get back there to knock the snow off of them.

Nolina microcarpa squiggles.

Sammy (the Yucca rostrata) is sporting a rather odd hairstyle.

The bamboo on the left (Sasa palmata f. nebulosa) is down for the count I'm afraid. After the last ice-storm it wasn't able to upright itself and this is just too much. Isn't the pattern on the trellis cool though?

Clifford (Magnolia macrophylla) stands proud with his bare branches and their snow-topping.

Even the little Yucca rostrata can work that strange top-poof hairstyle...

A better angle of Sammy's "top-poof"...

A branch from the neighbors conifer is leaning waaayyy into our garden (on the left). We just got the broken limbs from the first ice storm cut down, no more please!

Meanwhile some garden residents are living in heated luxury. Hardy seems fair does it?

Another cool trellis pattern.

Over the summer a passionflower grew around the metal wire loops, now there is snow.

Finally, the "tiny wonder" as she makes her way into the garden for potty time. Since the snow was as tall as she is (her tummy dragged) we made a path and cleaned a couple of spots in the lawn for her.

Weather Diary, January 11: Hi 32, Low 26/ Precip - I've lost track of the 24-hour total but there's a foot of snow on the ground here.

39 comments:

Oh, your pictures make my heart heavy, I see no beauty in them. I don't quite share your enthusiasm for the heat of summer, but I do share your vehement dislike of snow and ice and cold weather, probably for different reasons. I lived with it for so long in Massachusetts, I'll be truly happy to never see it again. You have my sympathy. I hope your plants survive. We got a dusting yesterday that melted quickly. Now we just have cold temps in the low 20s.

For me it's primarily the garden which influences my dislike of cold, snow and ice. But also I find it incredibly uncomfortable and painful (my skin, my bones, hell even my nose, all ache) and then there's the inconvenience factor. You have to cancel your plans and everything takes longer to do.

I dislike snow greatly so I can feel you pain: all your treasured babies covered up, fate unclear. You did manage to take some great pictures, in particular the "drowning" palm and the magnolia. I also saw the Before and After in yesterday's post: startling!

There is beauty in the snow but I sincerely feel your pain. I distinctly remember sobbing at our front door as golf ball sized hail was shredding and battering my gardens in late May our 2nd year in Denver. My heart was broken with the devastation.

Yesterday I was thinking back to December 2008, we'd just gotten Lila a month earlier and we had a similar snow event. She and I were in the back garden and I just started crying. It was all too much. Right about then she started doing silly puppy play (and she was already an "older" girl at 7) and made me laugh. She'd always been Andrew's dog, but we finally bonded that day.

That's an awful lot of snow & I hope it melts soon. I still get a bit excited when the white stuff flies as it often means that school will be closed the next day. Don't like making those days up in spring though. The tiny wonder looks especially cute in the snow!

If I was coming upon your blog for the first time, I'd think you were posting from Minnesota. It never would have occurred to me that Portland could get so much snow. I hope what I've heard about the insulating properties of snow is true and you lose less than you expect. In the meantime, I sympathize with the helplessness you feel as you wait things out.

That snow would be beautiful if it were where it belonged: here in Ohio. Honestly, I'd trade our 66° today for that insulating blanket of snow. (Ok, it doesn't really belong here because we are outside of the snow belt and don't get much snow....) The freezing and thawing yo-yo here takes big toll, and bare ground freezes fairly deep without that nice snow blanket. Wishing your garden and plants an amazing recovery and gangbuster growth in spring to repair any snapped branches, etc! Remember, there's always, always something for a gardener to look forward to. (Couldn't get rid of the damn preposition at the end!)

I feel for you, Loree, truly. I hope nothing is seriously broken or deformed when the snow melts. I'm so sick of this winter. So many things have been beating us down, from the weather to politics. I just want winter to be over, so I can at least enjoy my garden again.

You did give me a good laugh with the indignant marshmallow, I mean agave, though. I needed that.